Iron rich food -advice please

Prudent

My daughter has aenemia and it is having a significant impact on her ability to lead a normal teenage life. She is frequently exhausted, gets very cold and dizzy. She has iron tablets from doc, but I am trying to put lots of iron rich foods her into her diet. She is vegetarian, loves veg, fuit, pulses etc.

Does anyone have any advice? I want to make her tasty meals that will improve her health.

EthelBloggs

I think lots of dark green veggies are iron rich.. not sure what else tho in the case of a veggie

aussielovell

i suffer from this to - although not all the time. i was advised to eat eggs, oily fish, red meat, and dark green leafy veg like spinich, dark cabbage etc.

also, body absorbs iron better if is has enough vitimin c so also add in either a vit c tablet or orange juice.

teenagers often get this way anyway as their diets tend to be poorer and there bodies are going through so many changes that hormone levels are all over the place. There are lots of teen multivitimins on the market which you might want to research. Also, encourage excersise, even if she doesnt feel like it to start with, daylight and making the body work will help the good hormones

Hope that helps

Annando

Black beans are very rich in iron, soak them in very hot water for about 2 hours and then cook them in the same water. Dry fry a couple of cubed onions and a cubed green pepper unti tender, add the beans and the water and 2 vegetable stock cubes and cook in a pressure cooker for about 30 to 45 minutes. You can either, eat them on their own or mash them a bit with the "juice". Apparently the cooking "juice" contains more iron than the beans themselves. Mashed with loads of coriander leaves they are very good!

Murtle

A good place for veggie info is the veggie society

Here is there info on Iron

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/iron.html

x x

Ted_Hutchinson

• World's Healthiest Foods iron: foodsources

Diet or health--the linkage between vegetarianism and anorexia nervosa
Vegetarianism in its various forms, is widely encountered in different societies all over the world; thus, combining nutritional, social, behavioral and psychological aspects. The prevalence of vegetarianism in the western world, as well as in Israel, is dealt with in this review. The extent of vegetarianism among young patients with eating disorders is much higher than in any other age group. Anorexia nervosa patients in Israel admit to be vegetarians in 85% (mean), as compared to 65% (mean) in other western countries. The last three decades abound with nutritional messages concerning healthy life styles. Food Pyramids recommend meat avoidance as a remedy and promise for longevity. This reason for abstaining from meat has led to the adoption of vegetarian diets in grownups. All age groups have mastered the "Vegi" trend, and mostly young girls. They express feelings of disgust especially towards red meat. Despite the knowledge gained by the public about the linkage between diet and health, the proportion of patients suffering from eating disorders is rising. There seems to be a direct connection between the "Vegi" fashion of the teenagers and eating disorders which start typically in adolescence. Many surveys point to the abuse of vegetarianism as a mask for weight control. The vegetarian diet, a selective way of eating, might precede different eating disorders and increase the risk of developing anorexia nervosa.

Ted_Hutchinson

Annando wrote:

Black beans are very rich in iron, soak them in very hot water for about 2 hours and then cook them in the same water.

miss vickie Beans in a Pressure Cooker
Saw a nice stainless steel pressure cooker in NETTO's last week under £20.

Coupon_Queen_3

Dried apricots are a rich source of iron and tasty too

parkside_stroller

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

• World's Healthiest Foods iron: foodsources

Diet or health--the linkage between vegetarianism and anorexia nervosa
Vegetarianism in its various forms, is widely encountered in different societies all over the world; thus, combining nutritional, social, behavioral and psychological aspects. The prevalence of vegetarianism in the western world, as well as in Israel, is dealt with in this review. The extent of vegetarianism among young patients with eating disorders is much higher than in any other age group. Anorexia nervosa patients in Israel admit to be vegetarians in 85% (mean), as compared to 65% (mean) in other western countries. The last three decades abound with nutritional messages concerning healthy life styles. Food Pyramids recommend meat avoidance as a remedy and promise for longevity. This reason for abstaining from meat has led to the adoption of vegetarian diets in grownups. All age groups have mastered the "Vegi" trend, and mostly young girls. They express feelings of disgust especially towards red meat. Despite the knowledge gained by the public about the linkage between diet and health, the proportion of patients suffering from eating disorders is rising. There seems to be a direct connection between the "Vegi" fashion of the teenagers and eating disorders which start typically in adolescence. Many surveys point to the abuse of vegetarianism as a mask for weight control. The vegetarian diet, a selective way of eating, might precede different eating disorders and increase the risk of developing anorexia nervosa.

Well ... yes but with regard to the "abuse of vegetarianism for weight control" - the key words in there are "seems" and "might".

As someone who works in the mental health field, I am aware that there are a number of factors which contribute to anorexia nervosa or other eating disorders - vegetarianism in itself is not one of them, it might however be used by a person to mask other things that are going on such as anorexia nervosa. There is no single cause which explains eating disorders however and they have a variety of social, psychological and biological factors associated with their cause.
There are plently of people who have become vegetarian who do not and never have had an eating disorder (I've been veggie myself and healthy for the last 22 years, my partner veggie for 18 years is also eating disorder free).
While I would recognise Ted that you may be trying to encourage the OP to think about other things which might be causing her lack of energy such as lack of calories, I have some concerns.
My worry about your post Ted is that there are plenty of people who do not know how to take the results of medical research and some people such as the OP might feel unwarranted anxiety in relation to your post.

Going back to vegetarian sources of iron, I'd fully endorse the Vegetarian Society (UK) as a good source of information and help.

http://www.vegsoc.org/

Personally I've always eaten a lot of wholemeal bread (and taken a source of vitamin C at the same time) which takes care of a good chunk of my iron needs and means I'm less dependent on vitamin and iron tablets which can cause constipation (wholemeal bread is also high in dietary fibre so also acts against this problem).
If someone has been diagnosed as anaemic by a doctor however they would be best to try to resove this by short term use of iron tablets but also look at the need to ensure they are meeting their nutritional needs through food in the long term.
Myrtle has provided a link which is good - here it is again
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/iron.html for info on iron rich foods

Ted_Hutchinson

parkside_stroller wrote:

My worry about your post Ted is that there are plenty of people who do not know how to take the results of medical research and some people such as the OP might feel unwarranted anxiety in relation to your post.

I feel for developing bodies and brains there are greater dangers to health from being a vegetarian or god forbid vegan than there benefits.
If meat and fish were used in quantites such as The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid
Download PDF
Download PDF
then many of the objections to the way meat is produced intensively would not exist.
I fully support the health benefits of eating mainly vegetables and seeds and nuts but I still believe several vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients may be deficient within a vegetarian diet.
Mental Health Foundation : Feeding Minds
I'm also not convinced that the uptake and metabolism of ALA to DHA is sufficiently efficient to guarantee the developing brain gets an optimal amount, that doesn't stop me regularly suggesting that everyone grinds whole linseed and consumes some every day.

Prudent

I hadn't thought of linseed for humans. I used to feed it to goats!